Research

Fletcher Family Fund

Research Awards - Fall 2007

William Arce, Consortium for Faculty Diversity Pre-Dissertation Fellow & Lecturer of English and Latin American Studies
"Puerto Rican Civilians in the Cross Fire: The Borinqueneers and the Korean War"

During the Korean War various countries sent troops to support the U.S. military. Puerto Rico, although an American Commonwealth, sent an all volunteer regiment to fight in Korea under U.S. command. These soldiers, known as the Borinqueneers, constituted the U.S. 65th Infantry Regiment. This article will explore the recruitment techniques the Puerto Rican government used to attain recruits, it will provide insights into how the Korean War was framed for the Puerto Rican population. More broadly, the article looks at the complex intersections between politics and literature and it serves as a historical foundation for the literary analysis of Puerto Rican novelist Emilio Díaz Valcárcel and “New Yorican” playwright Miguel Pińero. Both of these authors wrote literature specific to Puerto Rican participation in the Korean War.

Pamela Ballinger, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
"Italy's Forgotten Refugees: Repatriation, Displaced Persons and the Reconstruction of Italy, 1945-1962"

To provide additional support for a book project, Italy’s Forgotten Refugees, exploring the experience of Italian nationals who came back to the Italian peninsula as refugees after World War II as the result of the loss of Italy's colonies.

Dallas Denery, Assistant Professor of History
"Medieval Relativism and its Legacy: 1230 to 1450"

This project examines the later medieval and early modern deployment of and reaction to relativistic modes of thought in theology, ethics, literature and art. When contemporary writers consider the history of relativism, they simply gloss over the entire medieval period, suggesting that the absolute (and absolutely accepted) claims of the Catholic Church during this period blocked the development of any consideration of relativized notions of truth and morals. This is an astounding oversight considering the attention that medieval writers paid to relativistic ideas in economic treatises, travel literature, religious manuals and scientific works It is the central claim of this project that the later medieval discourse of relativism best reveals the tensions and faulty lines within which modern relativism arose.

Sara Dickey, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
"Cinema, Consumption and Class in Neoliberal India"

Economic liberalization in India has propelled numerous changes in Indian cinema and cinema-related consumption since it was instituted in 1991. This project examines recent changes in film content, consumption and audience responses since the advent of liberalization, and their relationship to class structures and identities.

Lance Guo, Assistant Professor Asian Studies and Government
"The Developmental Ambitions of Three Municipal Governments in China"

China’s economic take off started with decentralization of the planned economy in the early 1980s. The result is not only intensifying market competitions as the main mechanism of resources allocation but also the rivalry among local governments that adds a significant dimension to China’s economic dynamism. This project compares the capital allocations and development planning of three cities recently designated by the Central government to experiment on more balanced and integrated development models so as to find out whether China’s new developmental policy is taking roots at the local level where the investment takes place.

Leslie Shaw, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
"Research on the Maya's Use of Shallow Caves in Belize, Central America"

The ancient Maya of Central America considered caves as portals to the underworld and used caves for ritual offerings and human burials because of this sacred connection. The area of the eastern Petén of Guatemala and Belize has very soft limestone and caves generally cannot be sustained in this soft bedrock. The Maya site of Maax Na is unusual in that caves have been discovered which extend under ceremonial architecture. While these caves are not particularly large, they potentially represented an access way to the underworld that the Maya might have considered when constructing their ceremonial space on the surface. This project will include a short but concentrated excavation project focused on Maas Na that will include specialists in cave exploration.

Birgit Tautz, Assistant Professor of German
"Literature between Technology, Mediality, Society"

As fiction faces challenges from “new media” of production, distribution, and reception at the beginning of the 21st century, writers confront a situation similar to those of the German Romantics. They experienced modernization and popularization around 1800 as both crisis and liberation and witnessed a transformation of tradition, ideas of culture, and literature’s reception. This project will fund research in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Library of the Film-und Fernsehmuseum Berlin and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach during fall 2007.